In This Corner of the World

Although it starts slow, it completely makes up for it in the second half. Beautiful both visually and from a story telling standpoint. I think it's best not to look at it specifically from a viewpoint of someone from world war 2, but just someone from any country that's going through war. Suzi's story is an interesting view into someone who is living through and has lost due to war.

An earnest if slightly aimless film about a civilian POV in the latter days of the Japanese Empire. The movie is told through the eyes of Suzu, a young girl whose life is very much dominated by the war, as she is essentially shipped off to a forced marriage to a militaryman, she is stuck with a step-sister who hates her, death and suffering come to her and her surroundings, and she is left to her own devices against the rationing, american bombing runs and general misery. At the same time, her husband is kind to her, her family does accept her, she has no personal threats, and she isn't exactly being particularly mistreated. The movie feels like a lot of energy is spent on this protagonist, which is a bit of an issue because this protagonist feels like a real person, and they have no special trait, they feel real and normal and live real and normal lives in a difficult time. Had this movie been more focused on a main message or on its portrayal of 35-45 Japan, I think it would have gained in strength. All this could still have been done from the POV of one civilian, but that civilian could've been a bit more "imaginary" and lived through more telltale events of the period rather than showing them making food recipes with wild plants. Besides this, the movie is really good all around. The emotions do swirl at some points, without it being overdrawn like in an american drama where the basest of the base is used to jerk tears out of your eyes. Here it's tragic and dramatic without feeling cheap or fake. The movie has some odd moments (like that time we seemingly see her have "two lives" and one turns out to be a dream) but it is beautifully animated, with great music, good taste, and is an all around piece of truth about the american bombing policy and their effects on the civilian population.

One of the best Japanese animations that I have seen in recent years and with them the quality ribbon is always high, a painful but beautiful story of one of their greatest tragedies and if anyone is going to talk about the horrors of Hiroshima are the people who suffered it raw.

As an anime, this is beautiful. Top notch production values. The same can't be said of the subject matter. This is classic Japanese revisionist propaganda in which they paint themselves as victims of World War 2 rather than the monstrous perpetrators that they were. And they use a sympathetic child protagonist to boot. Japan, own up to your past. Accept that the suffering your civilian populace incurred was a consequence of your own terrible actions.